NRA calls for armed guards in U.S. schools in the wake of Sandy Hook shootings

The National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre pauses as he makes a statement during a news conference in response to the Connecticut school shooting, on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 in Washington. The National Rifle Association broke its silence Friday on last week's shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 children and staff dead. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON — The nation’s largest gun rights advocacy group called today for armed guards in every U.S. school to prevent mass shootings like the one in Connecticut last week, a plan that would cost billions.

In a press conference at a hotel near the White House, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre criticized calls for new gun control laws and blamed a federal law creating gun-free school zones for the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and elsewhere.

“We care about our money, so we protect our banks with armed guards,” he said. “American airports, office buildings, power plants, courthouses, even sports stadiums all are protected by armed security. … Yet when it comes to our most beloved, innocent and vulnerable members of the American family — our children — we as a society leave them everyday utterly defenseless.”

The NRA also announced a new effort led by former Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., to develop a model school safety program that could be copied by school districts around the country.

Gun control groups were quick to criticize the proposal, arguing that local school districts already have the ability to hire security guards.

Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said his children’s school in Virginia already has a relationship with local law enforcement officials and regularly discusses how to improve school security.

But he said that security guards would need serious training to effectively counter a shooter with a semi-automatic weapon.

“When you talk to law enforcement, this is clearly SWAT-style activity,” he said. “The level of training required to be effective in this situation would be high, and it’s not just like some hired security personnel can handle this. To respond to an attack with the weaponry that Mr. Lanza had would take a lot of training and retraining.”

Police say Adam Lanza was behind the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary. Twenty children and six adults were killed there Dec. 14.

Exact figures are hard to pin down, but armed security guards can cost twice as much as unarmed school safety officers, said Larry Johnson, president-elect of the National Association of School Safety and Law Enforcement Officials.

In Grand Rapids, Mich., where Johnson heads public safety efforts for the school system, an armed security guard at a school would cost between $75,000 and $100,000 a year. With more than 67,000 elementary schools alone in the U.S., the cost would quickly reach billions of dollars.

“Walking out of another funeral and was handed the NRA transcript. The most revolting, tone deaf statement I’ve ever seen,” Murphy wrote, generating hundreds of likes and a slew of comments and shares.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.) called the NRA’s response “shamefully inadequate” and said he wasn’t convinced a security guard would have made a difference given the semiautomatic rifle that the Newtown shooter was using.

“I was told by a number of state police (that) they don’t think they could have stopped this killer with the existing body armor and weaponry that they carry,” he said.

In a press release Thursday, the heads of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association called similar recent proposals “astounding and disturbing.”

“Guns have no place in our schools. Period,” said NEA president Dennis Van Roekel and AFT president Randi Weingarten in a joint statement. “We must do everything we can to reduce the possibility of any gunfire in schools, and concentrate on ways to keep all guns off school property and ensure the safety of children and school employees.”

Most school security officers work in larger urban school districts, more a response to the threat of gang violence and the likelihood of fights than a defense against possible mass shootings, Johnson said. Of those, most are unarmed, with the few armed guards working in the nation’s largest school systems.

No questions were taken at the NRA press conference, which was interrupted twice by protesters calling for a new assault weapons ban and harshly criticizing the organization.

“It’s the NRA and assault weapons that are killing our children,” shouted one protester as he was led away by security.

The press conference came after President Barack Obama had called for new gun control laws, appointing Vice President Joe Biden to head a commission on the issue. Obama specifically called for it to look into a new federal assault weapons ban as well as mental health issues and the culture around guns.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a longtime proponent of an assault weapons ban, has already promised to introduce a new bill on the first day of Congress in January.

Though the Newtown shootings have refocused the public debate, past mass shootings have not led to new gun laws right away. It has often taken several years and other shootings before new laws were passed.

Ron Pinciaro, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Gun Violence, said he was disappointed that the NRA was sticking to its long-held positions and policies.

“We were hoping for something better based on their preliminary comments,” he said.

He said the fact that the shooting took place at an elementary school is driving a lot of anger.

“It’s got the moms angry,” he said. “The emails, the phone calls from all over the world have been nonstop. It’s been overwhelming.”